Are street mountain bikes for doing stunts supposed to have rigid forks or suspensions?
April 7, 2011 by pbik
Filed under Mountain bikes
Also, if suspensions, how much travel should there be? and any recommendations?
April 7, 2011 by pbik
Filed under Mountain bikes
Also, if suspensions, how much travel should there be? and any recommendations?
Suspension up front is recommended and skatepark kinda bikes ( Norco Empire 5, Giant STP 0, Scott Voltage and MANY more) can handle stunts and other tricks for the rider. Forks like Magura, Marzocchi, Rock Shox have specific forks for abuse—read Mountain bike Action, What Mountain Bike magazines!
If you are going to use it for heavy urban riding forks are better. Rockshox tora is a good stsrting point.
It depends.
Riding rigid gives you a lot more control in the skatepark (NOBODY I’ve ever talked to has recommended suspension for park riding…in fact they all hate it) and it sure makes trials stuff easier. I stick with 100mm travel and it sucks in the skatepark….hard for me to get used to bmx bikes or 26′ers with rigid forks but they do handle so much better and you really see the limitations that suspension forks can put on your riding once you try rigid. However, it will really beat up your wrists and transfer a lot of shock to your forearms and shoulders/neck. And unless you’re stupid, it also kinda requires you to run some good (heavy) steel bars, or some ultra heavy duty aluminum bars that you’re willing to change out every so often.
You have to choose a rigid fork carefully, too, so that you try to maintain the same-ish axle-to-crown height that your frame was designed for. If you have a frame that’s designed for 130mm forks you may have a hard time finding a rigid fork that’s tall enough so as to not drop the front end down too low (making the handling twitchy and robbing you of bottom bracket clearance, and also making it *much* harder to pull the front end up or get up on the rear wheel).
If you go suspension, get a good fork that’s made for some abuse. The Marz DJ forks are decent and cheap (heavy, though)….or the Manitou Gold Label or Rock Shox Argyle. I’m running a Pike right now and love it so far…..gives me the option to crank it down for urban and let it out for rougher dirt trails, and I can set it up very stiff and/or lock it out. I’d stay away from the ultra cheapie forks like the Manitou Stance/Blunt and similar models….I’ve heard nothing but crap about them and you often see them for sale for $50 used. *Definitely* make sure that you don’t use an xc fork like the Tora or anything similar….they may hold up for awhile and hopefully if they blow up on you it will only be the seals, but it’s a recipe for disaster if you subject those forks to jumping and street riding.
For suspension, 100mm is about perfect for dirt jumps and most street hucking…..lots of guys run 80mm too. Doesn’t seem like much but if the fork is stiff and strong it’ll suck up the drops ok and still give you front end control for tricks. There are even guys who lower their forks to 65mm…..I like a bit more than that personally, but it’s a nice compromise for a bike that’s going to see a lot of park/dirt jump riding and it’ll take some of the load from your wrists.
Also, if at all possible, go with a 20mm thru-axle front hub/fork. Much, much, very much better than standard quick release skewers. You can feel the stiffness and control the very first time you ride one.